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ing. Mariana Hanková, UCT Prague,

ročník 7

Faculty

Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology

Field of study

Food Chemistry and Technology

Field of internship

Agriculture and Food Science

Specialization of Internship

Agricultural and Food Products Processing

Internship period (from - to)

10.9.2019 - 3.12.2019

Internship duration (weeks)

Transport (means, price)

plane, 21803 Kč

Insurance/Insurance company

AXA

Visa/Work permit (yes/no)

yes

Price of Visa

around 2000 Kč?

City of Internship

India, Karunya

Internship reference number

IN-2019-0850-MU

About the country

Location of the place

small village in south India, Tamil Nadu state

City

the closest is Coimbatore - 1h by bus, where there is a more western supermarket.
Karunya is quite small but has all the necessary shops and facilities

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

Siruvani dam and waterfalls (but careful, they are closed during the monsoon season), Isha yoga center and Adiyogi - the biggest bust in the world - around 20 min by tuk-tuk

Employer

Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences

Work description

Mostly research about retort processing

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

8000 rupies, 5000 goes to the accommodation, so 3000 per month. You can get 1 decent meal per 100 rupies, but if you want to eat meat it will get more expensive. So if you also want to see something and travel just the salary is definitely not sufficient. African girls lived of it, but never traveled and always cooked at the guest house.

Language requirements

Excellent English, but there were people with less than excellent and worked just fine

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

5000 rupies in a Guest House, provided by IAESTE. Rooms for 2 people.

Social life

Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)

We didn´t see much of IAESTE people, as they were mostly busy. No one picked me up at the airport and I did the registration myself to a point where they needed an IAESTE member (which took 1-2h and I got a buddy that was really helpful in the end). IAESTE organised one international evening with international dinner, some members went shopping with us for traditional clothes. As we got to know later on, IAESTE members have quite a hard time in Karunya, so that has probably played a part.

Meeting other foreign students

All the IAESTE interns stay in rooms in the same hallway, share a kitchen and a washing room, so it was really easy to get to know each other.

Sport and culture

There is a sport centre behind the hostel on the boys grounds, where we could borrow sports equipment thanks to our student IDs. We played a lot of volleyball and some badminton. There is a gym available at the girls hostel and some girls were going running in the village in the morning. For any culture one must go to Coimbatore or further.

Food, local specialties

Food was great and cheap. We ate at the school "canteen" where you could get different kinds of parotta (our favourite was cheese parotta) and restaurants in the village that offer better quality gravys and chicken.

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

Wifi works if you´re lucky (I mostly was) and you buy and Indian SIM card with data, so communication was without any problems for me

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

If you want to get your work done you usually really have to work for it as the Indian way is a lot slower than what we are used to. Or just enjoy the cultural experience.

What not to forget with you

tampons, mosquito repellent (or buy one there), medicine for sore throat/stomach problems, handkerchiefs, earplugs, presents for your new friends

Benefits of the internship

Get to know a completely different culture, make new friends, learn patience

Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country

My buddy was great, but couldn´t leave the premises. Cooperation with other IAESTE members was terrible, they would announce something a day ahead, or organize last minute and expect us to be available at all times when they don´t even answer messages.